The Philippines has expanded its emergency use authorization (EUA) of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine to cover children 12 years and above, the Department of Health (DOH) said Tuesday.
But Health Undersecretary Maria Rosario Vergeire said while the DOH welcomed the expansion of the EUA, the short supply of vaccines means the government will continue giving priority to the inoculation of the vulnerable.
“The general consensus of our vaccine experts is to revisit pediatric and adolescent vaccination once our vaccine supply has stabilized,” she said.
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has amended the EUA it granted for Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine to cover those aged 12 to 15. The FDA said the amendment to the EUA was issued May 28.
Initially, the Pfizer jab was only approved for use on individuals aged 16 and above.
FDA director general Eric Domingo previously said experts gave “very favorable” recommendations on the use of the Pfizer vaccine on minors.
In March, the American pharmaceutical giant said its vaccine showed 100 percent efficacy against COVID-19 among adolescents aged 12 to 15.
Earlier, Vergeire said minors aged 16 to 17 with co-morbidities are allowed to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
The DOH is studying proposals and emergency use applications for the use of COVID-19 vaccines on children, she said.
“Children aged 16 to 17 years old with co-morbidity included in our recommendation are allowed to get the vaccine. They just need clearance from their doctor,” Vergeire said in Filipino in an interview with ABS-CBN’s Teleradyo.
The Philippines needs to procure 60 million more COVID-19 vaccine doses should the government include children in its inoculation program, vaccine czar Secretary Carlito Galvez said Monday.
“Children have the lowest risk of getting hospitalized or severe infections of COVID-19 and because of scarcity of supplies we will continue the priority framework,” Vergeire said.
The Philippines aims to vaccinate 500,000 people daily in Metro Manila and eight other key economic areas to achieve herd immunity by Nov. 27, Galvez said.
As of June 6, over 1.5 million Filipinos have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, DOH data showed.
The government has been inoculating an average 112,621 people daily in the past seven days, the DOH said.
Health Secretary Francisco Duque III on Monday urged the local government chief executives to prioritize the vaccination of A4 individuals aged 40 to 59 years old, citing a limited supply of COVID-19 vaccines in the country.
Duque, during a briefing with President Rodrigo Duterte and several Cabinet officials, said given the tight vaccine supply, local government units should first inoculate those aged 40 to 59 years old before shifting to individuals aged 18 to 39 years old.
The Philippines started vaccinating members of the labor force or A4 on Monday, a category which covers around 35 million people.
The government earlier divided the vaccination rollout for the A4 category into two phases, prioritizing those from the National Capital Region, Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal, Laguna, Pampanga, Batangas, Metro Cebu, and Metro Davao.
The Philippines has received about 8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines so far since the vaccination program started on March 1.
Vaccine brands delivered to the Philippines to date include Sinovac, AstraZeneca, Pfizer-BioNTech and Sputnik V.
Also on Monday, Senator Christopher Go called for the setting up of special vaccination centers or lanes solely dedicated to the inoculation of frontliners, senior citizens and adults with comorbidities.
“Let us not forget to inoculate the remaining A1 to A3,” Go said, as the government began giving jabs to people in the A4 category.
Senator Joel Villanueva, meanwhile, said the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) should keep a separate scoresheet for vaccines administered to people in the A4 category, who are key to the country’s economic recovery.
“We need to disaggregate the numbers and monitor effectively to give us a clearer picture as to where we are in our vaccination drive,” Villanueva said.
Senator Grace Poe, on the other hand, cited the critical need to augment the free transportation made available by the government and private sector to cover more senior citizens, persons with disabilities and indigent residents to go to vaccination sites.
She said the Transportation Department’s P5.58-billion Service Contracting Program under the Bayanihan 2 law could be tapped for this purpose.
The program will not only provide free rides to the needy sectors, but also give jobs to drivers displaced by the pandemic.